JSON-Server as a Fake REST API in Frontend Development

Introduction

Frontend development is changing day by day and we have to learn a lot more stuff. When we start learning a new framework or library, the first thing that is recommended to build a todo list which helps in doing all CRUD functions. But there is no solid backend/library available to make use of it to build a todo list.

Simulate a backend server and a REST API with a simple JSON file.

To overcome that problem json-server came into the picture. With it, we can make a fake REST api. I have used it in my app and thought of sharing it to the frontend community.

JSON Server is an npm package that you can create a REST JSON webservice. All we need is a JSON file and that will be used as our backend REST.

Installing JSON Server

You can either install it locally for specific project or globally. I will go with locally.

$ npm install -D json-server

Above is a single line command to install the json server. -D Package will appear in your devDependencies. I am not going to explain about that much here. If you want to learn more about that go through the docs for npm install. Check JSON Server version using json-server -v.

JSON file

As per the standard convention, I am going to name the file db.json, you can name it as per your needs.